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UG represented at the McNair Scholars Research Conference
Seven Students from the Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Guyana (UG) were selected to participate in the Florida International University (FIU) McNair Scholars Research Conference 2017. The two-day
The selected participants
conference ended yesterday.
The conference was held at the FIU’s Modesto A. Maidique Campus, attracting participants from a number of institutions to share their research and explore graduate studies possibilities.
The Guyana contingent consisted of six undergraduates and one faculty member.
Joenitta Arthur-Mc Kenzie of the Department of Biology was slated to speak on her research assessing the prevalence of intestinal parasitic helminths in children of Silver City, Linden, Guyana.
Puja Jaichand of the same Department presented her work on the consumption patterns and the economic impact of wild-meat on the Essequibo Coast. From the Department of Chemistry, Lisa Dublin presented on the development of highly mesoporous activated carbon from coconut shells for water treatment, while Rajiv Indrajeet presented on the characterization of the physicochemical properties of various cassareep available on the local market for the purpose of preparing a grading standard for local cassareep.
From the Department of Computer Sciences, Alicia Layne, presented on an integrated health information systems for improved diabetic outcomes in Guyana.
Owen Grant was slated to speak on his work which focused on distributed object computing – complexity reduction and interoperability. The students were accompanied by Ms Diana Seecharran, Assistant Dean of the Faculty.
According to a statement out of UG, “The Faculty sees this as an opportunity to showcase the valuable scientific work its undergraduates conduct annually. More importantly we see this as an opportunity for our students to gain exposure, build international networks and explore their graduate study options in the US.”
Participation in this conference is now used to motivate students to an even higher level of performance in undergraduate research.
UG in a statement said that the Faculty of Natural Sciences also saw the exposure as an opportunity to participate in this conference once again and for the support of the University of Guyana, Florida International University and other donors for their generous contributions to the venture.
This is the second time that UG has participated in this annual event. In 2015 the Faculty of Natural Sciences sent a team of five to the conference. Feedback from the students and staff suggested that the conference organisers were extremely positive.
The students selected are among the best of the student researchers in each of the three departments in the Faculty with a research component in their Bachelor of Science programme. The selected students were then required to submit an abstract of their research for oral presentation or poster display to be evaluated by the conference committee.
All submissions from the University of Guyana were accepted.
The McNair Scholars Research Conference is an annual activity under the FIU’s ‘Ronald E. McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program’ funded by the US Congress. The programme was named after Ronald E. McNair, an American physicist and astronaut who was killed when the space ship ‘Challenger’ disintegrated soon after take-off in January 1986.
Ronald McNair is known for challenging segregation laws in South Carolina at age nine so as to access library books. By the time of his death at age 35, he had earned a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), had been awarded three honorary doctorates and held the distinction of being the second African American and first Bahá’í to travel in space.
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